In response to complaints about "offensive material" in some US Air Force offices and installations, the USAF has issued a directive ordering "inappropriate pictures, objects and other materials" to be removed from workplaces.

Fortunately, pin-up nose art on the US Air Force Museum's aircraft collection will be not be affected.

I'd wondered about the nose art--sometimes tacky, but historical, and I'd hate to see it go. Management came through our office for inspection yesterday, and didn't find anything. They seemed to think it was largely something at the fighter wings that led the chief of staff to order the inspection.

Sickening. I remember reading sometime back about morons being offended by the name "Enola Gay."

Well if you don't like the old noseart, or that people put their mother's names on planes, you DON'T have to ever go back and see them now do ya?! I'll take our history over a bunch of snotty, uptight, politically correct wusses any day of the ing week!

Actually, you know who are the stirrers on 90% of this stuff? Religious folks. Or I should say, conspicuously religious folks.

This isn't a stab at anyone's faith. I'm just saying IME and those of my many friends and acquaintances in both uniformed and non-uniformed service, whether it's DoD, DoJ, DHS, or local LEA, the people who bitch about risque images and "inappropriate language" are almost always carrying a Bible.

Dynaman8789,I will give you benefit of the doubt on how your post can be taken. Put your butt on the line and see how much you care about all the PC and beauracratic BS. Offensive is only in the eyes of the folks who have never had to live a difficult life or make hard decisions.

never mind. Don't get me started. Just study Art History and see all the defaced/destroyed masterpieces over the centuries. All in the name of what is known today as "political correctness". I'm surprised some of this nose art has lasted this long!

I'm going to have to disagree on this one. It's not, in my experiance the religious right that does this. It's almost always the PC crowd.

I'm speaking specifically about the military, intel and, to a certain extent, LEA communities. Those aren't really areas where one finds many of the professionally offended/PC activist types.

Also, consider what the article was discussing WRT the Air Force. Joe Public wasn't complaining about bare on museum pieces. The policy (which is service-wide) deals with inappropriate material in the professional work environment and was brought about by complaints from servicemen and women. link

We (The west) are at war with the terrorists, specifically Al Qaeda and the Taliban. These folks seem to have a particular aversion to revealing the female body (hence the burka). Thus it can only be an act of patriotism to show more boobies. :)

There have been lawsuits as recently as the 90's targeting the WW2 nose art including ones as pictured above. As an artist and historian, i'm appalled at any groups attempt to ban, alter,destroy any piece of history or art. This belief, and I'm a christian-conservative, extends to books and photos from mein kamf to the maplethorp photos.The true atrocities are more inline with the warzones and crime scenes I've witnessed. The things done to the defenceless are more important than the petiton/ lawsuit to remove the nose art placed on military vehicles by fellows of similar beliefs as myself who in the main used the art as a reminder of home and what was left behind.Although we do not decorate our aircraft and fighting vehicles as we used to, several of my battle buddies had me draw cartoons and centerfolds that were taped to dash boards and lockers.

Fortunately, pin-up nose art on the US Air Force Museum's aircraft collection will be not be affected.

That is almost correct. The plane at the Museum that gets the most attention is the B-24 Liberator that flew out of North Africa, named the Strawberry Bitch. Originally, she was reclining topless on the nose, wearing only a g-string. In the late 60's the Museum recieved enough complaints to cause them to paint a negligee to cover the nudity. The artist who did this used a transparent blue paint, so as not to obliterate any of the original detail.

I spent a year as a volunteer at the AF Museum and my assigned area was the WWI/WWII hangar. By WWII standards, the pin-up nose art on the museum's collection is pretty tame (nothing like Ace in the Hole above!). I never heard any negative comments from visitors about the pin-up art. However, I heard many surprised comments (and giggling from kids) about the name Strawberry Bitch.

Oh how terrible war machines that destroy and kill, but you can't paint a bare naked lady on the side !! LOL !! But I can see somewhat of where they are coming from, being a former commander, the government trying to be PC for the public However, many things that happened in the past, were/are "offensive" to today's "sensibilities" but it is history, and that's the way it happened And frankly, I don't care how many Al Quada/Taliban types we offend

I didn't see where in that story the regulation had anything at all to do with historical nose-art. It appears that the reporter solicitated a response concerning historical nose art from the base commander, who answered that the regulation does not concern historical art. End of discussion.

The core of the matter is described in the last paragraph and has nothing to do with historical nose-art. This really looks to me like Barry Barber of the Dayton Daily News implying a controversy where there isn't one.

I'm going to have to disagree on this one. It's not, in my experiance the religious right that does this. It's almost always the PC crowd.

Enfant- Do you have some data to back this up? And why does it matter anyway?

I'm pretty sure it sometime in the late 70's/early 80's Strawberry Bitch was 'clothed'; I grew up in East Dayton and I remember her being nekkid and then, all of a sudden, when she was much more interesting to me as a teenager, she had the negligee on. Always thought it was just me mis-remembering her outfit, but glad to know I wasn't having memory issue then. (just now! :))

Jim, I worked in the Museum's gift shop at the old location in the late '60s, and then at its current location in the early '70s. It was in that time frame she was clothed. Her postcard, and the P-40 Flying Tiger's were the two most popular we sold.